Automated or robotic devices are used increasingly to synthesize compounds, particularly in the area of biochemical compound development in the search for new pharmaceutical compounds where it is necessary to synthesize large numbers of compounds. Automated synthesizers also find use for the synthesis of non-biochemical organic and inorganic compounds. However automated synthesizers, in which reagents are conventionally delivered to the reaction wells by one or more probes, are normally confined to synthesis protocols that can be carried out under relatively mild conditions of temperature and pressure. If pressure is required to either cause a reaction to occur or to speed up a reaction which proceeds slowly under ambient pressure it has been necessary to transfer the reagents to a reaction vessel adapted to withstand internal pressure and that has a fluid tight, pressure resistant seal. A probe cannot access such devices. Thus, automated synthesizers, that rely on robotic probes for delivery of reagents and washing solutions and the like, have not been used for high-pressure reactions such as, for example, high-pressure hydrogenation and high-pressure Diels-Adler reactions which involve the use of catalysts and pressure.
Accordingly it would be highly desirable to have a reaction vessel adapted for use with automated synthesizers and which can withstand relatively high internal pressure.